After the successful edition in Taipei in February, more than 120 academics from 11 countries all over the world came to Aveiro in Portugal from 17 to 18 November to discuss the newest developments in cycling research. During two days, the interdisciplinary colloquium organised by the University of Aveiro and ECF’s global network Scientists for Cycling focussed on two main themes:

• “Cycling Delivers to the UN Global Goals”, which was introduced as a S4C topic for the coming year already at the S4C colloquium in Taipei. Researchers were invited to contribute to the creation of a body of evidence for the benefits of cycling at the global level, including, but not limited to climate change, liveable cities, public health, innovation and economic growth…

• “Rapid Changes”: This theme track analysed rapid changes in cycling-related areas in order to identify successful strategies in terms of transition management, investments, traffic safety measures, transformation of public space and others.

The scientific core of the programme was enriched by special sessions on financing cycling advocacy and cycling in the media. A highlight of the colloquium was the site visit to the testing facilities of the Portuguese industry association ABIMOTA and the production site of the Miralago/Órbita Group, which are both part of the Portugal Bike Value project.

You can find the presentations of the colloquium here.

The book of abstracts is available here.

For more information on the situation of cycling in Portugal, read this guest article by Portuguese architect/urban planner Bernardo Pereira.

Video of the second plenary session: